For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.
The one whom God sent was himself the Word who was with God in the beginning, the Word who was himself one with God. He did not speak, as we of earthly origin do, of mere opinion or conjecture. He alone was able to tell the truth definitively.
But the one who comes from heaven is above all.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard,
but no one accepts his testimony.
We are used to hearing about earthly things. We don't necessarily find them delightful, whether they be gossip, opinion, politics, or anything else that is associated with the temporary and passing things of earth. But we are ready to accept them, accustomed as we are to their ilk. Heavenly things are unfamiliar and unprecedented. We wouldn't come to know them on our own. So our response to them is a response to the one who reveals them to us. And since the one who reveals them to us is himself the Word of the Father our response is also a response to him, a response, hopefully, that "certifies that God is trustworthy."
God wanted to come close to us in Jesus Christ, who was called Emmanuel, God with us (see Matthew 1:23). He did this in order to reveal himself and to make clear his heart for his people. God did not simply love the world, he so loved it as to give for it the what he himself most loved. No longer would people be able to complain that God was distant, aloof, or disinterested. He came near and threw in his lot with us, coming to serve and not be served (see Matthew 20:28), to demonstrate his love completely. This revelation was meant to elicit from our hearts a response: acceptance, repentance, love in return.
The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God remains upon him.
If we obstinately refuse to believe the Son there is nothing more that can be done for us. If we prefer unreality to the truth we will not be forced to conform. God proposes, but does not impose. If we persist in unbelief we will more and more see how thin that unreality is until at last the crushing emptiness of it is all we know. May we choose to believe the Son, even though the things he speaks are new, whether they seem too difficult to attempt or too good to be true. We must learn to trust in his authority, wisdom, and providence. The reason he wants us to believe him is precisely so that we will be open to everything he wants to do in us and through us.
He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.
He does not ration it, but we often ration how much of it we are willing to receive. And the reason we do this is because we don't fully believe him about our ultimate purpose, because some lie or other has a stronghold in our minds, telling us that we can't, we shouldn't, or we don't deserve. Jesus can set us free. His very Spirit is at work renewing our minds, giving us the power to be free from lies.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (see Second Corinthians 10:5).
We see in the Apostles an example of what happens when people fully believe in and invest themselves in the truth revealed by Jesus. The world still tries to tell them lies, still tries to limit them in many ways, but they no longer allow such lies to hold sway over the minds or wills. May we too experience this freedom.
But Peter and the Apostles said in reply,
“We must obey God rather than men.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus,
though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior
to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We are witnesses of these things,
as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Reflect: If Jesus really does not ration his gift of the Spirit, how great should our expectations be for Pentecost this year?
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